The present invention generally relates to the art of electrical connectors and particularly to a connector having a shield that engages in grounding contact with a cooperatively mating connector.
Generally, known electrical connectors have included an electromagnetic shield. It is also known to establish contact between the electromagnetic shield and a cooperatively mated plug that is inserted into the connector. This is intended to provide an enhanced grounding and shielding of the connector.
In order to provide a conductive contact between the shield and the mated connector, it is further known to provide the spring with a spring that biases against the inserted mating connector. The spring is sometimes referred to in the art as a detent or a positive lock. It is known to form the spring and shield integrally from a metal sheet. In particular, the spring is defined by a cut in the shield, then formed by bending. The spring may be designed to exhibit desired forces and strength characteristics by varying the thickness (see Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. Hei 10-32043).
Further, a connector cable assembly is known for a USB (Universal Serial Bus) or the like. Such an assembly includes two connectors, one on each end. In order to ensure that a user connects the cable to properly corresponding mated connectors, the shields of the connectors mounted to the cable have previously been manufactured to have respectively different shapes. Because the shapes of the respective shields and corresponding mating connectors are completely different, such connector cable assemblies have high manufacturing costs.
However, in the ongoing demand to miniaturize electronic products and to reduce production costs, the conventional connector structure is approaching its limitations. Several problems with the conventional connectors have proven difficult to overcome. By reducing the size of the connector, the length of the ground spring has necessarily also been reduced. This has made it difficult to adjust the spring biasing strength.
It is desirable to improve the performance and resiliency of the ground contact spring formed in the shield of the conventional connector without occupying more space. It is further desirable to improve manufacturing cost and efficiency, particularly by eliminating a need to fabricate the shields and bodies completely separately the connectors for connector cable assemblies.
According to an embodiment of the invention, an electrical connector is provided of the type adapted to receive a mated plug. The connector includes an insulative housing. A plurality of conductive terminals are disposed in the housing. The connector also includes a conductive shield at least partially covering the housing. The shield has a cavity within which the mated plug is received. Further, the connector includes a ground spring including an elongate, resilient body portion and a ground contact portion. The body portion of the ground spring has a mounted end integrally connected to the shield and a ground contact end distally opposite the mounted end. The ground contact end is shaped to slidably engage against the mated plug. The elongate body portion has at least one generally right-angled elbow at a location intermediately between the mounted end and ground contact ends.
In an embodiment, the shield includes at least a first panel and a second panel oriented at a generally right angle relative to each other.
In an embodiment, the resilient body portion is generally L-shaped, having a first section between the mounted end and the elbow and a second section between the elbow and the contact end, each of the first and second sections being generally planar. In an embodiment, the first and second sections are generally disposed in a common plane, such that the L-shaped body portion may reside coincident with the first planar shield panel. In another embodiment, the first and second sections are disposed in respective planes generally perpendicular to each other so that the elbow of the L-shaped body portion lies generally coincident with a corner of the first and second shield panels.
In an embodiment, the ground spring and the shield are unitary. In a related embodiment, the ground spring is defined by a cut in the shield.
An advantage of the present invention is to provide an improved connector.
Another advantage of the present invention is to provide a connector including a ground spring having substantial length in a compact space. In an embodiment, the L-shaped body portion provides the ground spring with substantial length, allowing miniaturization of the connector without sacrificing ground spring performance.
Previous attempts to miniaturize connectors have necessarily resulted in an undesirably short ground spring exhibiting undesirable spring characteristics. A further advantage of the present invention is to provide a connector wherein the ground spring has suitable flexibility and deflection characteristics.
According to an embodiment of the present invention, the shield is configured to include a first panel that extends in an insertion direction of the mated plug, the second panel extends in a direction orthogonal to the insertion direction, and wherein a first section of the body portion of the ground spring lies in the second panel, and the ground contact end lies in the first panel.
According to an embodiment of the present invention, the shield is configured to include a first panel extending in the insertion direction and the second panel has a surface extending in a direction orthogonal to the first panel, the ground spring having a mounted end joined to the first panel and an opposite ground contact end in the second panel. With this configuration, the spring member is formed to extend over the two panels of the shield, thereby to ensure a sufficient span of the ground spring.
According to another embodiment of the present invention, a connector cable assembly is provided. More particularly, the assembly cable includes a cable having a first end and a second end, a first connector being connected to the first end, and a second connector being connected to the second end. Each plug of the inventive type described above. Further, each of the plugs has a shield including key portion, such as a bump or projection, for mating and connecting with a correspondingly-keyed mated plug. This permits the connector to be mated with only with a corresponding counterpart plug.
Further, the key portion or projection can be formed integrally with the shield. As a result, the connector device can be advantageously manufactured at a low cost.
According to an embodiment of the present invention, the connectors at opposite ends of the serial bus cable are provided with respectively different key portions such that the mated plug associated with one cannot be matably received by the other. Such an embodiment advantageously prevents inadvertent misconnections.
By employing the aforementioned structure, the shield and the key portion provided thereon can be manufactured together by a simple press working. Furthermore, the position of the projection provided on the surface of the shield can be easily changed by merely changing a position of a die used for the drawing process, specifically for embossing or a half-knock process. In other words, two kinds of connectors can be manufactured by one press working facility, thereby to provide a connector device which can be manufactured at a low cost.
An advantage of the present invention is to provide an improved electrical connector.
Another advantage of the present invention is to provide an electrical connector that has improved grounding contact.
A further advantage of the present invention is to provide an electrical connector that has an improved grounding spring. A related advantage is to provide an electrical connector having a reliable grounding spring contact.
In an embodiment, the shield includes at least a first panel and a second panel oriented at a generally right angle relative to each other.
Yet another advantage is to provide an electrical connector having a reduced size.
A still further advantage of the present invention is to provide an electrical connector that can be manufactured economically with reduced costs.
Yet another advantage of the present invention is to provide a connector having a ground spring which can be easily designed to have a wide range of spring characteristics.
A still further advantage is to provide a connector that establishes and maintains a reliable a ground contact with a mated plug received therein.
Additional features and advantages of the present invention are described in, and will be apparent from, the description herein and from the drawings.